#️⃣People

People like to invent monsters and monstrosities. Then they seem less monstrous themselves.

Show me a man or a woman alone and I’ll show you a saint. Give me two and they’ll fall in love. Give me three and they’ll invent the charming thing we call ‘society’. Give me four and they’ll build a pyramid. Give me five and they’ll make one an outcast. Give me six and they’ll reinvent prejudice. Give me seven and in seven years they’ll reinvent warfare. Man may have been made in the image of God, but human society was made in the image of His opposite number, and is always trying to get back home.

What you see isn’t always the reality. We look at one thing but see another. Why? With a marble statue because of a change in perspective or trick of light. But with human beings, the reasons are more complex. People project only what they want others to see, or atleast they try to. And even when unintended clues to the being behind the mask are exposed, we often refuse to see them. Our perception of others is always distorted by our own prejudices, hopes, and fears. And sometimes, we look at others and see ourselves.

We are friends with the people we do things with, as much as we are with people we resemble.

Shopping for houses is amazing. People who would never invite you into their homes under any other circumstances open their doors wide, allow you to peer into their closets, pass judgment on their wallpaper, ask pointed questions about their gutters.